Iranian Alert -- June 24, 2004 [EST]-- IRAN LIVE THREAD -- "Americans for Regime Change in Iran"

Famous NGO places Iranian regime in top three executioners list for 2003

SMCCDI (Information Service)
Jun 24, 2004

The famous Human Rights body, Hands Off Cain , has placed the current Iranian regime among the top three executioners in its 2003 report. Hands Off Cain is a famous NGO seeking for the abolishment of Death penalty worldwide and has an observation status at the United Nations.

The parts of the Hands Off Cain's 2003 report related to Iran are as follow:

" Top executioners for 2003: China, Iran and Iraq

Of the 63 countries worldwide retain the death penalty, 48 are dictatorial, authoritarian or illiberal states. These countries accounted for at least 5,525 executions, or 98.7% of the world total of executions in 2003. One country alone, China, carried out at least 5,000, or 89.3% of the executions that took place during 2003. Iran was responsible for at least 154 executions. Iraq, up to April 9 when US Central Command chief General Tommy Franks suspended the death penalty - as the US-led coalition invaded the country and toppled Saddam Hussein?s regime - had already executed at least 113 people.

Vietnam carried out 69 executions; Saudi Arabia 52; Kazakhstan at least 19; Pakistan at least 18; Singapore at least 14; and Sudan at least 13.

Many of these countries do not issue official statistics on the practice of the death penalty therefore the number of executions may be much higher. In some countries, executions are completely covert, and news of them does not even filter through to the local media. Two cases in point are North Korea and Syria.

The conclusion that can be drawn from such a picture is that the definite solution to the problem of capital punishment - more than by tackling the issue in itself - is better achieved through the establishment of democracy, the rule of law and the promotion and respect of political rights and civil liberties.

Authoritarian states once again take the podium as the top executioners of the year in 2003: China, Iran and Iraq (up to April 9, 2004)

Iran, again in the top three

Iran, along with China, regularly features among the countries that execute most people in the world. Though China remains by far the most prolific executioner, Iran, in proportion to its population, applies capital punishment just as much. In 2003, 154 executions were recorded in Iran, including a woman and a minor. This total is significantly less than in 2002, when 316 executions were registered, including a woman stoned to death, but as with other illiberal countries, the real number of people put to death by the state is probably much higher. Iranian authorities do not issue official statistics on the death penalty, and HOC?s total is based on news reports by Iranian media, that very likely do not carry news of every single execution.

Iran does not limit itself to the death penalty. Its interpretation of Sharia law prescribes whippings for sexual relations before marriage, lashings for drinking alcohol and amputation of hands and feet for petty thieves. ..."

The Movement was chosen for the last July's conference of this credible NGO, held in Rome/Italy, in order to represent the Iranian Nation which is forcibly subjugated to the illegitimate rule of the Islamic republic regime.

Nicole Sadighi, the SMCCDI's representative in UK, was among the Hands Off Cain Conference panelists along with the distinguished Elisabetta Zamparutti and Fidel Castro's daughter entered into dissidence against his father's repressive regime. The conference was highly midiatized and the Movement'ss envoy made a public speech followed by several interviews with main Italian media, newspapers and radios, which put an unprecedented light, in Italy, on the plight of the Iranian nation and its true aspirations.

In the same day, July 9, 2003, the SMCCDI envoy gathered with tens of Italian activists and members of the trans-National radical Party in front of the regime's Embassy in Rome in order to demonstrate against the regime.

SMCCDI's speech at the Hands Off Cain conference was as follow:

" Distinguished Delegates and Guests

I would like to thank the Association of “Hands off Cain” for inviting me to be a part of today’s forum on Capital Punishment and Human rights violations.

Today, in this Millennium, I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to speak out on issues close to my heart. Today, I can stand here and exercise my right to speak as a woman and a fellow human being without fear of punishment or reprisal. Today I can walk away from here as a free woman. In this respect I am lucky.

But there are those less fortunate in the world. Those whose basic fundamental human rights have been and continue to be violated and dishonoured by the irrational and brutal laws of their land. I refer to such famous, yet, tragic cases of Amina Lawal and Sufiyata Husieni of Nigeria who were condemned to death by stoning. These cases have caught the world’s attention.

However I come here as a representative of the "Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran" (SMCCDI) and as the voice of the hundreds of thousands who are being continuously silenced by the theocratic regime of the government of the Islamic Republic.

At this very moment as we sit here, in the comforts of our democratic discussion, thousands of innocents have been imprisoned in secret prisons. Many have been accused of treason or blasphemy and condemned to death by stoning or hanging, and many more condemned to flogging or torture, simply because they have tried to bravely challenge this tyranny. They are punished purely because they wish to uphold their freedom of speech by peaceful demonstrations and instead they are beaten and arrested by the notorious Basiji and plain clothed police. There are tens of Amina Lawals’ and Sufiyata Husienis’ in the Islamic Republic where stoning to death is prescribed for certain offences under the country’s Penal Code - still they are not as widely publicised by the free press. How can such atrocities and butcheries go unnoticed?

The young people of Iran are struggling for human rights, democracy and political and social freedom. Yet one of their greatest hindrances is the European Union’s continuing relationship with the Islamic Republic, which is seen by millions of Iranians in the country as unfriendly behaviour and a deliberate disregard to the legitimate demands of the Iranian people for democracy.

If the European Union wishes to demonstrate that it truly does care about the democratization of Iran and wishes to show respect for global human rights, then the best policy for them would be NOT to side with an oppressive regime, but to STOP dealing with the Mullahs and support the Iranian people, and invest in the people of Iran who WILL bring down the Mullarchy sooner or later, along with its so called Reformist government of Mr. Khatami who betrayed the nation and delayed the demise of this evil regime. It is difficult to understand that any civilised government can have dealings with a regime that publicly executes, lashes and stones its own people. They should have no business cooperating with such a regime and no business interests can justify such involvement - the European Union had better be a friend with the Iranian nation and sever its relations with the Islamic Republic.

The Reform in Iran is dead! And the majority of people and especially the university students and other youths in Iran no longer respects President Mohammad Khatami and the rest of the so-called reformists camp. During the last 6 to 7 years they have done nothing for the nation.

On the contrary, during his presidency, more people have been killed, executed, imprisoned, tortured, flogged and over a 100 newspapers and weekly publications were closed down, journalists were silenced, and even websites were filtered so the young generation cannot communicate with their fellow-countrymen living in free countries.

Today, on the order of this very Reformist President, peaceful demonstrations of students to commemorate the July 9th, 1999 Tehran university dormitory killings by the plain clothed agents has been banned and any person not observing this ban shall be regarded as “Mohaareb” meaning Enemy of God!

In fact on July 4th a young man named M. Ghiaas, was severely punished in the Southern and Oil-rich city of Dezfool, for encouraging people to revolt against this regime. Both of his arms and legs were amputated. This is the breed of character of Islam we are dealing with.

We must travel this road together. For nearly 25 years the citizens of Iran have been crying out to be heard. They want to be a part of the democratic community of nations.

Our sense of duty is to speak out honestly and openly for the endorsement and defence of all those whose fundamental human rights are violated. No one should be forced to live in silence for fear of persecution, arrests, imprisonments, torture, abuse or death.

We must fight for liberty and justice, for freedom of thought, freedom of will, freedom of being. Every man, women and child has ownership of these rights by birth, no matter what their colour, creed or religion, race or gender. Everyone has a right to a free and dignified life in a democratic state.

To quote the famous words of Martin Luther King – “All men are created equal”. Yet in a country that is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human rights and has clearly ignored the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against women, the people of Iran are not being treated equal. Countries that do not respect the human rights of their own, ultimately do not respect the human rights of their international neighbours.

It is organised committees such as Hands off Cain that increases awareness and forces the governments and the international community to face the important human rights issues around the world. The heart of today’s meeting is to be the voice of those who are not heard. To be the catalyst of the message of those who are suppressed and silenced. Yes! Our voices here, are those of Aminas and Sufiyatas of Iran.

Nevertheless, Iranian people are not quitters! However they need and deserve the support, compassion and solidarity of the world community in freeing the country of the current regime and for it to be replaced with a secular government with a complete separation of church and state; which demands democracy and liberty.

Thank you very much and may all of us be successful in our noble fight for justice, liberty and freedom for all of mankind.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_6785.shtml

The Oil Bomb

June 16, 2004
Ottawa Citizen
David Warren

Things are not as they appear in the Middle East, for while on the surface things may look pretty bad, underneath they are much worse. And what looks so bad is really the one thing that is going right.

Two nasty car bombings on successive days, a couple of high-level assassinations, and numerous small sniping and other terrorist incidents, on top of unresolved constitutional squabbling between Kurds and Shia, and intra-Shia, and legal chaos surrounding the handover of Saddam Hussein and several thousand other key prisoners still in U.S. custody, have left the Western and Arab media under the impression that the turnover of power to the new Iraqi government is somehow not going smoothly.

Yet all these hits and complications are easily survivable, for the new Iraqi state. They are just the background noise one must increasingly expect wherever Muslim "militants" are confronted with the possibility of an open society. The crescendo is building towards June 30th -- the formal date of transfer from Paul Bremer's administration to that of Prime Minister Iyad Illawi -- after which the Iraqi music will begin to fade.

Less attention is given to the more worrying, longer-term development. In the vicinity of Basra -- which has been remarkably quiet despite the best efforts of Moqtada al-Sadr's Shia blackshirts to stir up trouble -- two clever acts of sabotage have succeeded in cutting off most of Iraq's oil exports, for a couple of weeks. The saboteurs were most likely members of cells controlled by the Wahabi Islamist underground in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

The main terminal complex in Basra and a smaller one at Khor al-Amaya nearby had been loading 2.5 million barrels per day, a significant portion of the world's oil supply, and most of the new Iraq's income. The pipeline through Syria is down by policy, and that through the Kurdish north and Turkey (with a capacity well under 1 million barrels per day) has been cut to a trickle by frequent small terrorist hits.

The problem here is that oil pipelines and facilities have become targets of choice. They were always fairly easy to hit, but as Arab psychopaths from Osama bin Laden down used to argue publicly, they must not be hit because they are the unique source of Arab wealth, power, and prestige. To stop the flow of oil is to cut: 1. the ability of the "Arab nation" to hold the industrialized nations hostage; 2. their ability to fund the terror networks, and the parallel networks of Wahabi madrasas, mosques, charities, and political fronts that proselytize for radical Islam across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Worse (from an Al Qaeda point of view), the destruction of the oil weapon would mean, ultimately, 3. the loss of the Arab ability to shape, direct, and define Islam for non-Arab Muslims in our post-modern world.

Desperate times require desperate measures, however -- the Islamist "militants" have been, since 9/11, losing materially on almost every front -- and it is becoming clear that the leaders have been rethinking their approach. It becomes very clear, when one looks into Saudi Arabia, and finds a purposeful strategy to "drive out the infidels" by assassinating carefully selected Western technologists upon whom continuous Saudi oil production most depends.

For two months now, the U.S. State Department, working on the premise that people's lives are more important than people's money, have been advising American nationals to get out of Saudi Arabia, in response to the terrorist campaign. They are in fact leaving, faster and faster. While the House of Saud can still contrive to pump oil at something like the present volume for a few months using Saudi nationals and the less skilled foreign workers not yet targeted, the oil infrastructure will then collapse. It depends entirely on American, Japanese, and European expertise.

This makes the possibility of a world oil crisis on a scale beyond anything experienced in 1974 or 1979 entirely thinkable in the coming winter. It explains why the U.S., Japan, Germany and other leading oil-dependent countries have been building inventories at an unprecedented rate, even at high current oil prices.

There is another regional issue of some urgency: that Iran's ayatollahs are on the verge of obtaining nuclear weapons. That is very serious, and almost nothing is being done about it, in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election. Call that potential Armageddon No. 1.

But Armageddon No. 2 must also be considered: fanatical Arabs having decided, on behalf of all their brethren, that they must try to turn the world's oil supply into one big suicide bomb.

http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/Comment/Jun04/index220.shtml

Transcript: Will Terror Derail Iraq's Transition of Power?

Thursday, June 24, 2004

This is a partial transcript of The Big Story With John Gibson, June 23, 2004, that has been edited for clarity.

JOHN GIBSON,HOST: Big attacks and small, they're all taking a toll on efforts to rebuild Iraq. Joining us now, Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute (search) and Harlan Ullman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (search). Today's big question, to you first, Michael, will a terror campaign against Iraqis derail a peaceful transition of power?

MICHAEL LEDEEN, AMERICAN ENTERPIRSE INSTITUTE: No, I don't think so. It's been going on since the very beginning. Everybody knew it was coming. Both Harlan and I predicted it long before the liberation of Iraq, and it's an ongoing struggle.

GIBSON: Harlan, you say it's ongoing ad infinitum.

HARLAN ULLMAN, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: It's going to go on I'm afraid for a long time. I think there are an awful lot of bad people who have a lot of reasons that they want to overthrow this government, they want to disrupt it. With June 30 coming they're going to use that as a date ...

GIBSON: You have no sense that the Iraqi people want to support this government in any way?

ULLMAN: First of all, I would say that the bulk of the Iraqi people are very unhappy with the American occupation, and I think there's far less support for this government until they prove themselves. And one of the problems with overreacting with what Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (search) is going to say is that this government, because of protection, is going to be finding it increasingly difficult to get out and be with its people. It's going to be increasingly isolated just like the old Iraqi government council was.

GIBSON: Michael, the logic we're operating under here now is, gee, you know, as of July 1, it's an Iraqi government. The Americans go off to their barracks and run security operations, and that's that. Whoever this is setting these bombs off is attacking Iraqis, not the Americans. Does that logic work in Iraq?

LEDEEN: I think really it's a distinction without a difference, John, and I think from the very beginning the countries that have been supporting this terror network — and, remember, Zarqawi we can place very firmly in the axis of Iran. Zarqawi for years operated out of Iran. He's been back and forth to Iran all the time. Europeans have endless transcripts, intercepts, and firsthand testimony of Zarqawi working out of Tehran and working closely with the Iranian revolutionary guards and so forth. It's a regional war. There was never any way we could win this thing in Iraq alone. We were forced into a regional context all the time.

For Zarqawi to come out now and say, well, we're going to kill the new prime minister is no news to anybody. They've been trying to kill every Iraqi that would, first, collaborate with the coalition and, secondly, serve in an Iraqi government, because all those people in Tehran and Damascus who are supporting this terror network know perfectly well that if Iraq is permitted to succeed — if there's a free and Democratic Iraq, they are doomed because their own people will get rid of them. People in the Middle East, by and large, want to see Iraq succeed. Regimes don't.

GIBSON: Harlan, is this an Iranian deal?

ULLMAN: It's beyond Iran. Michael and I agree about the notion of a regional war here. But have you to realize that Saudi Arabia, Pakistan are part of the this in addition to Syria and Iran. And the problem is by focusing on Iraq, we're making it increasingly difficult to deal with the larger problems which are going to take place in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and if Michael is correct, with Iran and Syria. In other words, we're dealing with a tactical issue in Iraq when the strategic issue really has to do with the region and the politics of the region. And I'm afraid we're not getting ahead of that power curve. That's the real danger.

GIBSON: All right, if that is the case, Michael, then is there an argument to be made, though, that even though we may be behind the curve on the strategic vision, we have a tactical emplacement in Iraq?

LEDEEN: Oh, for sure. We have to continue to fight in Iraq, and we might get lucky and actually get Zarqawi, although I would really be surprised if Zarqawi were in Iraq today. I don't think he is there. I think he has gone back to Iran, and I think his people are operating in Iraq, and they have elevated now. He used to be a kind of operational commander. Now more and more he is a media star. He has cassettes coming out and media statements. He is up there along with people like Usama bin Laden.

GIBSON: All right, Harlan Ullman, light at the end of tunnel or oncoming train?

ULLMAN: It's a long slog. And, unfortunately, rather like American politicians have learned to become celebrities rather than heroes, I think Michael is right. Some of the bad guys have learned to become celebrities and our media and the way that you can use the Internet and all sorts of communications can add to that, much more than we should make of it. Obviously, they want to try and kill the leadership, and I think we ought not to overreact. This is business as usual.

GIBSON: Harlan Ullman and Michael Ledeen, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,123639,00.html

CIA planned guerrilla campaign in Iran to counter communists in 1953: documents

WASHINGTON, June 23 (AFP) - The US Central Intelligence Agency planned a sustained guerrilla campaign in Iran in case its 1953 plan to ouster the government of Mohammad Mossadegh fell through and communists increased their sway over the country, according to newly declassified US government documents.

The top secret papers, produced in late 1952 and 1953 by the State Department and the National Security Council, provide proof that the widely-known US-British efforts to destabilize the government of prime minister Mossadegh were backed up by broad contingency plans that called for bolstering US military presence in the region and launching an anti-communist guerrilla force in the south of Iran.

The Mossadegh government, which drew the ire of Washington and London because of its persistent attempts to increase control over the country's oil resources, was toppled in an August 19, 1953, coup led by US-backed general Fazlollah Zahedi who allowed pro-American Shah Reza Pahlavi to return from exile.

US officials have grudgingly acknowledged that the coup had become possible due to CIA-designed Operation "Ajax" that helped plunge Iran into chaos and paved the way for Mossadegh's downfall.

But the administration of then US president Dwight Eisenhower was seriously concerned that the plan could go awry and Iranian communists from the Tudeh Party would capitalize on instability and the unraveling economy to seize power, according to the documents released by the National Security Archive on Tuesday.

To counter that possibility, the CIA made preparations for unleashing a guerrilla campaign targeting Tudeh members and other Iranian politicians, then-undersecretary of state Walter Smith reported to the White House.

In his memorandum dated May 20, 1953, Smith noted that the CIA had reached an agreement with Qashqai tribal leaders in southern Iran to establish a clandestine safe haven from which US-funded guerrillas and intelligence agents could operate.

"To date CIA has trained and equipped a total of approximately 10 indigenous clandestine radio operators to be located throughout Iran and who can be called upon to maintain communications with CIA when desired," Smith wrote. "Others are being trained."

Stockpiles of weapons and ammunition were being secretly assembled at Wheelus Field, an air base in Libya used at that time by the US Air Force.

Smith reported that the base already had enough war materiel to equip a 10,000-strong guerrilla force and allow it to operate independently for at least six months. Other supply bases were being established in Tripoli, the Suez Canal zone and the US state of New Jersey.

"These supplies could, within three to four weeks, be transported by air and sea to certain strong tribal elements in southern Iran," the undersecretary of state assured.

Reception points for this materiel were being set up in the Tehran and Tabriz areas, along with secret caches of gold and currency, while the CIA drew plans for forming eight, three-person teams to run its secret guerrilla army.

The plan also called for deploying several dozen additional US warplanes to southern Turkey and positioning a naval force of an undetermined size in the vicinity of the Iraqi southern city of Basra to create a barrier to "the spread of communist power."

In addition, the US government was determined to seek access to the Saudi military base in Dhahran "as a transit point in connection with contemplated US covert operations," Smith wrote.

http://www.iranmania.com/news/230604a.asp

Note: This may prove that US actually though erroneously believed Dr. Mossadeqh to be a communist - The British on the other hand conned the US to overthrow Dr. Mossadeqh for their own greedy reasons... cheap Iranian oil.

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